PS3 Review – Warriors: Legends of Troy

April 18, 2011 Written by Cameron Teague

Tired of Asian culture and history, Tecmo Koei decided to this time pick on ancient Greece for one of their latest offerings, Warriors: Legends of Troy. With a new backdrop to the conflict and a lot of completely not Asian characters, we learn that a new coat of paint isn’t enough to fix repetitive and boring gameplay.

In Legends of Troy you are dropped into one of the biggest conflicts in Greek Mythology, the ten year Trojan War. The story revolves around the events of Prince Paris and his abduction of Helen of Troy, which then lead to Menelaus launching an all out attack on the city of Troy. In the game you will play from the side of the Trojans and their defense as well as the Greeks and their attack. The story here is a strong point of the game with such a rich history of characters and interesting plot twists.

There are four playable characters on each side, including the famous Achilles for the Greeks and Hector for the Trojans. Each character has their own missions during the game so you will spend a lot of time jumping sides from mission to mission. The problem here is that there really isn’t much difference in the mission structure or depth, just who you are after and why. Secondary objectives are added to help provide a tiny bit of depth and there are times when you can take various paths during the mission, but it all fails to provide much of a spark.

Combat is the biggest part of your experience here and also the biggest let down. Take your character into the field of battle, mash 3 different attack buttons and block/roll whenever you get bored. There are combos that can be performed in the game but are never needed as you can simply just spam attack buttons or down the enemy back with a shield bash. After enough attacks a fury meter will fill up and allow you to unleash a deadly barrage of attacks that do more damage. This whole fury system could have been really epic, like some of the special attacks in the Dynasty Warriors series but sadly it’s more of the same just with a different visual effect.

When in combat you might notice that you will have allies at your side, helping to overwhelm the enemy. Unfortunately, no one taught your AI teammates how to swing a sword, thus relegating them to taking up screen space and becoming an utter annoyance. Pouring salt to this open wound is the fact that there is not a lot of visual difference between enemy and foe, leaving you hacking away blindly at the mob in front of you. Luckily friendly fire isn’t turned on or I might have been killed for being a traitor. Add in some poor hit detection and frequent dips in the frame rate and you have for some very frustrated moments.

Additionally, there are Kleos that can be collected by completing successful attacks. The Kleos can be spent on items for your character which you have to assign to a grid, meaning you are limited on items that can be equipped. These items you purchase can be transferred between characters which is nice and come in handy during battles versus stronger enemies.

The game tries to spice things up with challenges that you unlock during your playthrough. Arena has you selecting a character and fighting through different opponents similar to a tournament. Rampage pits you against onslaughts of enemies who you must kill to build up your Kleos score and Bloodlust where you are slowly losing health and must continue to defeat enemies to stay alive. These modes aren’t terrible and can be a fun change to the missions but don’t provide much in the way of fun. The Arena mode would have had some serious potential with offline battles versus friends or online fights but you are left to fight just the computer.

Presentation doesn’t do the game many favors either as graphically the game isn’t quite where it could be. Designs of the main characters are solid but animation during the cut-scenes is not with character’s mouths not synced properly. The dialogue in the game is actually fairly good though not outstanding and while most of the main characters are well voiced, a few leave plenty to be desired. The game’s score is the highlight of the audio side though with solid tunes and proper placement and timing of the songs.

In the end, Warriors: Legends of Troy is a game that doesn’t really do anything memorable. The great setting and characters to this mythology are let down by bland combat and forgetful missions. While the game can be fun in spurts, there are plenty of better options on the market should you feel the need to mash some buttons. Unless you are dying for a taste of Greek Mythology or extremely bored, this is one game you won’t be sorry you missed.